I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

‘This’ being the problem that there are two franchises, and only one JJ Abrams.

See, I don’t know which side I identify with more, because it depends on circumstances. I watched both Star Wars and Star Trek. I read the ST books, not the SW ones. I play the SW video games, not the ST ones. I know the back-story to ST better than I do SW; I know how to roleplay a SW character better than I know how to roleplay a ST one. I’m torn even when it comes to the franchises themselves: I love the ST reboot because it’s deliberately evocative of TOS, but SW desperately needs a reboot, if not a a finger-down-the-throat purge.

12 Comments

It’s a conundrum. J.J. is good, if not great, director which is a step up from Lucas, but the specters of his own flubs (LOST, Super 8, Cloverfield) loom large. At the bare minimum, SW 7 needs to get back to the fast paced action adventure of the original three films and must not feel like ST at all. If he does that we’ll be in good shape.

Deliberately ignoring the prequels or squeezing in a few pot shots at their stupidity would be appreciated, but not required. 😉

Horrified, I shudder in fear.
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Fortunately, there’s not even the hint of a rumor that Joss will profane Star Wars with his ridiculously-overpowered action chicks.
For which I am deeply, deeply grateful.

I .. disagree, Crawford.
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If I were involved .. the next Star Wars movie would pre-date Phantom Menace by, oh, a couple hundred years… and would be Yoda’s backstory.
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By starting *there*, it’s possible to do a re-shoot of the execrable Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith without contradicting any of the elements therein… just tell the story of Anakin from Yoda’s side.
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Mew
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p.s. There’s a chance for some cost savings here too .. the role of young and younger Anakin can be played by cardboard cut-outs with no noticeable degradation in the films’ quality

There’s all sorts of things that could be done (and given the rumors of stand-alone movies revolving around minor characters) they will be.
There’s a story behind Boba Fett and his Mandalorian battle armor.
Admiral Akbar was kind of a big deal. His rise to the top of the rebel armada could cover several flicks.
How Han got the Millennium Falcon from Lando. (Fleshing out Jabba the Hutt and Tatooine in the process.)
Tales of Coruscant…

Really though the fall of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side is the driving force behind all the main character motivation from New Hope to Return of the Jedi. It really should be the highlight of the series. I am of the opinion, Disney should pull a Bobby Ewing’s dream out of this hat and act like PM, AOC, and ROS don’t even exist. The fall doesn’t have to come either – like your idea with starting with Yoda because Kasdan had the fall correctly in Return of the Jedi:

Kenobi: “When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot. But I was
amazed how strongly the Force was with him. I took it upon myself to
train him as a Jedi. I thought that I could instruct him just as well
as Yoda. I was wrong. My pride has had terrible consequences for the
galaxy”

Anyway: that is the long of my opinion. The process by which Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader should be completely redone in Kasdan’s original vision in which the combination of Kenobi’s pride, Anakin’s ambition and the dark side’s seduction combine to horrid consequencies. I always thought the destruction of Anakin’s body should have been a lashing out of Ben’s regret and anger not some slip off a volcano. There should be a reason Ben went to live in that cave and Yoda went to Dagobah other than Vader scared them. My opinion.